If the Detroit Tigers end up wasting their hot start to the season, a big finger could be pointed at the bullpen. So far, the relief corps sits middle of the pack 15th in WHIP at 1.29 and 19th in ERA at 4.19 and the front office didn’t exactly go all-in to fix that at the trade deadline, outside of picking up Kyle Finnegan and Rafael Montero.
Over the weekend, the Tigers tried another bullpen shake-up, cutting ties with Luke Jackson and calling up Codi Heuer from Triple-A Toledo.
President of baseball operations Scott Harris can point to those changes and say, “Hey, at least we tried.” But moving on from Jackson could end up being a decision that lingers and not in a good way as Detroit pushes through the season’s final stretch.
Keeping Luke Jackson Could Have Long-Term Ramifications for Tigers
No Tigers fan is going to argue with the call to DFA Luke Jackson. The right-hander simply never found his footing in Detroit, giving up four earned runs, walking five, and striking out only four in just three outings after signing on July 26. The problem isn’t so much that they cut him it’s that they might have waited too long.
As Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press pointed out, the Tigers could have moved on from Jackson back at the trade deadline when they brought in Kyle Finnegan and Rafael Montero. That would have allowed them to keep righty Brenan Hanifee on the big-league roster and lefty PJ Poulin in the organization.
Instead, Poulin was DFA’d to make room on the 40-man roster, despite putting up a 3.38 ERA in 35 Triple-A appearances. The Washington Nationals scooped him up, and he’s since allowed just one earned run over 2.2 innings. Hanifee, meanwhile, stayed in the organization but got sent down immediately after being named Tigers “Reliever of the Month” for July. In 46 games this year, he’s posted a 3.10 ERA and 1.31 WHIP but couldn’t be called back up for 10 days due to roster rules.
Rather than keep a steady bullpen arm, the Tigers gave Jackson one last run, letting him toss two scoreless innings against the Twins on August 5 before cutting him days later.
The whole situation makes it feel like Scott Harris is just yanking every lever he can to patch the bullpen and in the process, may have lost an arm that could’ve helped down the stretch or even next season. With Detroit’s AL Central lead already trimmed to six games heading into Monday, these roster moves could be the kind that stick with them if they come up short in the pennant race.